March 31, 2009

What Do You Want? Creativity

What do you want? What do you really want from your work or ministry team? Compliance is fundamental for order it but never takes effort beyond the basics. Achievement is essential but it also doesn't complete the effort. Innovation allows/forces you to begin to stretch and take measured risks. But is there more?

It was IBM who began to challenge their employees and customers to "think outside the box." But that has become, now, an overused cliche that is simply an analogy for innovative thinking. What if thinking outside the box doesn't give you the answers or the process? Is there another way of looking at the needs and how they get satisfied?

Think of a problem as being like a strip of paper and your possible solutions are written out on a line. When you get to the end of the paper you are out of solutions. But, aha, you think. What if we taped the ends together. Then we could continue to write solutions to our problem. That's innovative thinking but soon you see that you are looping on your old solutions and there is another side to the strip for new solutions but how do you get to it? What if the end of the strip was twisted and then joined? Now you've created a continuous strip that in a single line covers both sides of the strip. That's creative thinking and that is called a Mobius Strip.

What do you do when "tried and true" isn't good enough? Christian ministry is the largest and oldest family owned business that ever existed-- two thousand years of "we've always done it this way." In many ways it's been 500 years since the enterprise has had a new idea. Now that's not bad, in and of itself, since our mission has been made clear from the beginning. It's just with that much tradition, change in how we fulfill that mission comes slowly.

In the last posting we said, "When team members are unable to fulfill their roles to meet leadership standards and expectations, and the issue is neither compliance nor achievement, innovation may be what's lacking. Organization or relational barriers may be preventing team members from getting work accomplished. Sometimes working harder and being more careful isn't the solution. Sometimes finding a better way to do the job is what's required. Staff need to be challenged with the fact they have been selected not just to do existing tasks well, but to find better ways to deliver ministry."

However, sometimes innovation is merely repackaging when what's needed is a completely new approach. Christian ministry in North America is facing a unique challenge. More and more people are simply not finding church as we know it to be the solution to their spiritual needs. And, more and more people are not seeing their spiritual needs as important in how they live their lives. Perhaps it's time for some creative thinking and then some creative doing.

Creative doing is distinct from innovation in the fact that while innovation finds ways to do known practices better, creativity finds ways to meet needs in entirely new ways, using new paradigms and looking, perhaps, for different measurements of effectiveness. That's different than being different for the sake of being different. Creativity is effective when there is a compelling need and existing conventional thinking is making no progress and the need still exists.

In order for creative thinking to take place several elements need to be in place.

2. Clear understanding of mission/purpose and how the efforts towards that mission are failing.

3. High tolerance for risk. There will be a lot of trial and error. Can everyone tolerate the inevitable failures of doing something new.

4. Agreement the costs of creativity are worth accomplishing the end goal.

5. Reserve capacity to fund experimentation. Traditionalism is inexpensively exorbitant. While traditionalism is efficient to maintain the potential return on the investment is unacceptably low.

A couple of things to keep in mind if you want your team to be creative.

1. Keep your eye on the mission. When things get rocky there are a lot of distractions out there. Remember why you were created; why you continue to exist.

2. Change your viewing instrument. In addition to seeing the issues through the lens of leadership, look at it from the position of the customer, the recipient or potential recipient of service or ministry. Look at it from the view of the first line employees/ministry workers.

3. Celebrate risk taking yet don't be wasteful or reckless for the sake of risk.

4. Communicate the need and the strategy. Gather the support of the stakeholders. Understand what is likely to happen if "business as usual" is usual.

For the rich young ruler compliance just wasn't doing it for him. Neither was wealth, position or power and the possibility of being a better, more righteous Jew wasn't looking any brighter. Jesus offered him a simple yet totally creative solution to his dilemma. The solution was creative since the ruler had to put something into his life that he completely lacked--selflessness. "Go and sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then, come and follow me." There was nothing in the rich young ruler's life that prepared him for that. Jesus asked him, as Paul describes in 2 Corinthians, to become a new creation--to allow the creative, regenerative work of the Holy Spirit to make a new life.

Creativity was too threatening for him. So it is for many today who are presented with the same opportunity for a new life. So it is for many businesses and far, far too many ministries. Without creativity compliance is a prison. Without creativity achievement is a meaningless acquisition of accolades and accoutrement. Without creativity innovation is merely rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Creativity is not the same as organized chaos. Creativity still keeps focus on the mission/purpose but is willing to test the status quo to determine it's structural integrity and relevancy. As a Christ follower and leader when you consider the necessity to find new ways to minister and reach out to the community, how much tradition and traditional thinking remains on the table? What are the standards for taking elements of our orthopraxy--how we practice our faith--off the table? What are the standards for leaving our orthodoxy--what we know to be our faith--on the table? Creativity for variety's sake is dangerous. Traditionalism for security and stability is equally dangerous.